Tripwire

"The humiliation scenes were too hard bitten for me"


I found listening to the first two Reacher novels soothing, Child's sparse, almost documentary-style prose with its focus on facts and street names and physical routines, combined with McClain's calm but never dull voice, create a rhythm that I enjoy.

I also like the idea that Reacher is the competent but detached alpha male who will punish evil-doers and save the beautiful woman, even though we all know he won't stay with her.

"Tripwire" is darker and more serious than its predecessors. The serious side of the book allows for the fact that when drifting becomes a conscious choice, it is a rejection of the world that suggests something is broken. It presents the possibility of Reacher show more staying with the girl and even having somewhere of his own for them both to stay. It asks the question whether Reacher can do that and still stay Reacher. All good stuff that makes Reacher more real.

The darker side of the book spoiled it for me. The evil-doer in this book gets off on inflicting humiliation and pain. The pain mostly takes place "off camera", for which I was grateful but the humiliation is described in great detail. It is convincing and completely repulsive. It's not gratuitous. It drives the story and it is not glorified but it left me feeling angry and soiled and degraded by my own voyeurism.

This is a tribute to Child's writing but it violated the expectations I came to the book with and filled my head with things I'd rather not give house room to.

I'll try one more Reacher book, but if this focus on the anatomy of evil continues, I will look for my entertainment elsewhere. show less

Jack Reacher is living out in Key West digging out swimming pools for a living. When a stranger in a bar asks Reacher where he can find this man, 'Jack Reacher', he pretends he doesn't have a clue, but before taking his leave, the stranger tells him his name is Costello and that he's been sent by his client, a Mrs. Jacob from New York city, to find him. Later than night, while Reacher is working at his second job as the doorman in a strip club, two more strangers come looking for Jack Reacher, and again, our man tells them he doesn't know who they're talking about. But later, when he finishes his shift, Reacher finds Costello dead with his fingerprints cut off and decides he needs to go to New York and find out who this Mrs. Jacob could show more be and why a man has lost his life after asking around about him.

I didn't know what to expect from my first Lee Child book, but I can say it certainly won't be my last. Tripwire is actually the third in the Jack Reacher series, but I wouldn't have known from the story, since there's plenty of background information on Reacher and his origins here. This novel combined thriller elements, including sadistic businessmen with hidden agendas, and the search for a soldier who disappeared in the Vietnam war without a trace, along with a passionate romance that wasn't too sappy for my tastes. It soon becomes obvious that this book was written pre-9/11 since the twin towers feature prominently as a location. Good pacing and buildup, with a twist near the end which sneaked up on me which was an added bonus.

The narrator does a great job in the audio version, and while at first I found the sound quality to be wanting, it quickly stopped being an issue. show less

In this intriguing entry in his Jack Reacher series, novelist Lee Child covers an ambitious amount of territory, geographically taking his protagonist from the Florida Keys to New York (including many scenes set on the eighty-eighth floor of the now vanished World Trade Center) to St. Louis, MO., Fort Worth, TX, Honolulu and back to New York.

The plot is complex. Reacher novels sometimes have a whodunit aspect, but most, as in this case, let you know who the bad guy is right away. The mystery is all in his purposes and his origin--what makes him tick and how he got to be a bad guy.

The reader often knows more than Reacher about what is really going on, thanks to Child's omniscient shuttling between character viewpoints, including that of show more the villain.

Child always does a lot of research and won't let you not know it. One of his characters has only one arm and now I know exactly how he undresses and dresses himself. ( He has to put his pants on the floor in order to get them on a hanger.)

These might sound like complaints--and I haven't even mentioned that I solved the core mystery long before Reacher and spent much of the last half of the book wanting to shout the solution at Reacher. Actually, though, I enjoyed the intricate plot for all its loops and violent confrontations. There are several crimes committed in the course of this novel. Reacher resolves some while committing others himself. I should also mention that the villain is particularly sadistic in this book, and his various murders are not for the squeamish reader.

Typical Reacher moment: In NYC, Reacher tells his girlfriend he is going out to get a pizza and a gun, that he will pay more for the pizza than for the gun, and he'll be back in less than an hour. Damned if he doesn't show how that can be done--but he does it in a dangerous way that only Reacher can get away with. Don't try this at home!

My favorite aspect of this novel is the character development that Child does in this, the third installment of the series. Reacher, who is supremely confident when confronted by multiple opponents, is afraid to do laundry, afraid to settle down, afraid of domesticity and commitment. In other words, he's a guy.

Also, some questions about how a man as anti-social as Reacher ever got as far as he did in the military are answered. Early in this novel, Reacher attends the funeral of his mentor, General Garber, who groomed Reacher and made sure he made his promotions. Reacher obviously had the skill set to keep the jobs he got in the army (for a little while, anyway), where he headed a Military Police unit, but with equal obviousness, he didn't have the political kiss-ass skills to get those jobs. But General Garber loved Reacher like a son, and Reacher loved him back, so there was never any need for Reacher to put on a false front to get ahead. That is one mystery this novel solves for the whole series. show less

I have read or listened to several of the Reacher series, but it struck me while listening to this, the third in the series, that Jack Reacher is an extremely boring person who lives a prosaic, boring life. He seems to have no interests, no love of music or books, or hobbies. He suffers from terminal pseudo-guilt that inevitably gets him sticking his nose into situations fraught with potential violence. One character in this book described him as looking like a “condom overstuffed with walnuts.” He seems to consider that as being “in shape.” He has no family, no ties, no job, no intellectual interests. Geez, the last guy I would want to have a conversation with. Yet girls fawn over him (the author must think women are insipid show more little creatures.)

Some of the scenes were unnecessarily graphic. We know Hobie is a bad guy; it’s not necessary to beat us over the head with his sadism. The books would be far more satisfying if Reacher used a little more subtlety, more brain,and less brawn. OK, if you like fantasy; I doubt if I’ll read any more. show less

Review by Jeremy Taylor
It takes only till about page four or five of Lee Child’s third book, Tripwire, to figure out that ex–military policeman Jack Reacher has a knack for getting himself into trouble. Luckily, he also possesses just the right skills and physical capabilities to get himself out of just about any situation.

In Child’s previous two Reacher novels, the imposing and independent former soldier encountered a sinister small-town political conspiracy (Killing Floor) and a militant backwoods militia group (Die Trying). In Tripwire, Reacher finds himself involved in something he’s a little more familiar with: a former military man, officially missing and presumed dead since Vietnam, who has suddenly reappeared—with a show more vengeance.

After reconnecting with an old flame, Jodie Garber, the daughter of the general who used to be his commanding officer, Reacher employs state-of-the-art forensic techniques to track down the identity of the missing soldier and determine his present whereabouts and recent activities. The picture is grim: after decades of invisibility, Victor Hobie has apparently started killing people in particularly gruesome and shocking ways. As Reacher and Jodie get closer to uncovering the secret of Hobie’s identity and activities, they discover a military cover-up that stretches across oceans and an international financial racket run by the most frighteningly ruthless opponent Reacher has faced yet.

The slightly rambling plot aside, Tripwire is a typical Lee Child novel—fast-paced and fun with a high emotional payoff. Jack Reacher continues to satisfy as the consummate hero: strong and unflappable, sensitive and troubled, intelligent and, when necessary, deadly. Unsurprisingly and unfortunately, the book features scenes containing explicit violence, and Reacher’s James Bond–like womanizing is only nominally tempered by the fact that his fling in this book at least has the potential to become a long-term relationship.

Christians who have read other books by Lee Child won’t be surprised by the lack of spiritual content, but they will recognize the underlying moral framework that supports the story: harming any innocent human being for any reason is wrong; doing harm to an evildoer may be unfortunate, but it is at least justifiable (even if the bringer of justice is not acting with any government-sanctioned authority). Jack Reacher’s morality isn’t exactly Evangelical, but at least it’s consistent, and Child’s writing is good enough to make the story worth reading, with appropriate caution. show less

Really Despicable Villain

There are really two villains here, but the first one gets off too easy, and the second one too quickly. I love the Reacher character, and a genuinely evil villain is a necessity for the revenge element required for the hero to wreak his havoc, but this one is missing the meticulous planning this character uses so well when harvesting his pound of flesh, and what about the other 5 folks he rescued? Don't we get to learn of their happily ever afters? As usual, a ripping good read, but not Child's best.

Tripwire is Lee Child’s third Jack Reacher novel, originally published in 1999. Much of the action takes place in the South Tower of the World Trade Building complex. A Cray supercomputer is the ultimate in technology and automobile satellite navigations systems are the latest rage. More surprisingly for fans who have read several other books in the series, Jack Reacher wears a watch (!), not yet having developed the uncanny ability to simply know the time that he exhibits in later books.

As in all the Reacher books, the narrative is fast paced and tense; we learn a great deal about army life and military procedure and culture; and we can also pick up some gossip about various small arms. Jack is as big and strong as ever, and his show more intuition is (as usual) unerring. This book stands out because it features Child’s most villainous villain, an army deserter-sadist-murderer-loan-shark with a nasty steel hook instead of a right hand. It also stands out because at the end - Spoiler Alert! - Reacher has inherited a house and is seriously considering settling down!

I would rate this book slightly above most of the other Reacher novels although I could see the ostensible surprise plot twist a mile away. It was a good airplane book - definitely a page-turner - and I read most of it on a flight from San Francisco to Chicago.

(JAB) show less